[4] Flow time analysis Flashcards
What are the competitive adv of having shorter flow times?
- shorter delivery responses time
- delaying production closer to the time of sales
- more reposnsive to tech developments and customer preferences
- moving from extremes of made-to-stock to made-to-order
- reduced inventory
Flowchart definition
Graphical representation of the network structure of the process
Activity time
Time required by an avg flow unit to flow through the activity
The flow time of a process is…
= the activity time + waiting time within the process
Theoretical flow time def
Min amount of time required for a flow Unit to flow through the process from entry to exit, w/o any waiting time
Flow time efficiency formula
Theoretical flow time/flow time
Critical path def
The longest path in the process flowchart
Levers for reducing activity times
- Restructuring the critical path - to a non-critical activity
- Reduce non-value adding activities
- Work faster; increase speed of operation, technology, method, training, financial incentives
- Do it right the first time - decrease the amount of repeat work
- Modify the product sequencing - do the quickest thing first
What is the definition of a value-adding activity?
Increase the economic value of a flow unit from the perspective of the customer
What can be considered a resource?
Activities performed using capital and labour resources
resource pool def
Collection of interchangeable resources than can perform an identical set of activities
E.g. 2 admin offices
What is a resource unit?
Each unit in a resource pool
Unit load def
Avg amount of time required for processing
Effective capacity def
Inverse of the unit load
Bottleneck definition
The longest flow time (aka lowest capacity)
